Note 176 — Chapter XXXIII

These implements of destruction were afterwards used against the British cruizers in America, and were judged formidable. But such desperate courage is necessary to attach the machine to the destined vessel, and the fate of the engineer, if discovered, is so certainly fatal, that, like fire-ships, petards, and similar inventions, liable to the same inconvenience, they do not appear likely to get into general use.—S. See in the Annual Register, vol. xlvi., p. 553, Lord Keith's account of the failure of the catamaran expedition against the French flotilla outside the pier of Boulogne.